Steven Johnson on Farsighted: How we make the decisions that matter the most @JesusCollegeCambridge

Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

Steven Johnson, best-selling author of books including Wonderland, Where Good Ideas Come From, and The Ghost Map, and the host of the PBS and BBC series “How We Got To Now” and the podcast “American Innovations”, joins us for an evening talk in the Intellectual Forum, Jesus College. His writings delve into the intersection of science and technology within our lives, and have influenced everything from the way political campaigns use the Internet, to cutting-edge ideas in urban planning, to the battle against 21st-century terrorism. Steven is a regular contributor to Wired, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times

Steven was chosen by Prospect magazine as one of the Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future, and The Wall Street Journal called him “one of the most persuasive advocates for the role of collaboration in innovation.” He unites a deep understanding of scientific progress with a sharp sensitivity to contemporary online trends. Together, those traits give him an unmatched insight into how ideas emerge and spread and how they affect the world today.
In this talk, Johnson seeks to explore, if the hardest choices are also the most consequential, why do we know so little about how to get them right? In answering this, he will draw upon a number of important themes from his recent work and how we might best think about a world fraught with uncertainty, including insights from his new book, Farsighted: How We Make Decisions That Matter the Most.

Steven Johnson on Farsighted: How we make the decisions that matter the most

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$Building sustainable communities with Professor Yasmeen Lari Please note that we had some technical difficulties, so some of the event is missing in this recording. What happens if you involve communities in post-disaster development? Join Professor Yasmeen Lari, ‘architect for the poorest of the poor’, at the Intellectual Forum to hear about her work in Pakistan following the 2022 flooding and her vision for the future of sustainable architecture. The impact of climate change was at its most severe in the countrywide flooding disaster that engulfed Pakistan in the summer of 2022. One third of the country, the size of United Kingdom, was submerged in water, rendering 33 million people homeless in its wake. During earlier post-disaster development, the promotion of high carbon urbanized models (using concrete blocks, steel girders, and burnt bricks), resulted in excessive GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions, whilst also inhibiting community participation. The promotion of the international colonial charity model, which consists largely of handouts, overlooked traditional low-carbon vernacular construction and participatory approaches. Since the floods occurred, adoption of Barefoot Social Architecture (BASA) principles, which seek to foster community participation, has demonstrated how flood-affected households can be placed on the path of rapid recovery, at low cost. Yasmeen Lari will present her holistic architectural approach, which has led to the rehabilitation of 1,000 households through provision of rights-based development: the basic needs of shelter, sanitation, water, alternative energy, and clean cooking, along with disaster mitigation measures and environmental improvement through self-building techniques. Her work in Pakistan following the floods demonstrates the importance of women-led and women-centred rehabilitation to foster empowerment and self-reliance for building sustainable communities – at a fraction of the cost incurred by the prevalent international models. Building upon the successful pilot implemented in one of the worst flood-hit areas, Yasmeen will discuss how the target of 1 million households could be achieved through investment of only £160 per household. About the speaker Yasmeen Lari is Marshall Professor of Sustainable Design at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, 2022-2023. She trained as an architect at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and was elected to RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) in 1969. She has served as president of IAP (Institute of Architects Pakistan), deputy chair of ARCASIA (Architectural Regional Council of Asia), and founding chair of architects’ regulatory body PCATP (Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners, chair of TI-P (Transparency International Pakistan) and founder chair of INTBAU Pakistan (International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism). Yasmeen is the cofounder and CEO of the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, an organization working to conserve the nation’s historic art and architecture while providing large-scale humanitarian aid to local communities. Under her leadership, the Heritage Foundation has helped build over 40,000 carbon-neutral structures across Pakistan. She has received several national and international awards including the Fukuoka Prize (2016) and Jane Drew Prize (2020). As a result of her strategies for providing social and ecological justice to marginalized sections, she is often referred to as ‘architect for the poorest of the poor’. She has authored and co-authored several publications on Pakistan’s architectural history and on low-tech low-impact zero carbon methodologies for construction.$

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